Bordeaux 2023 Vintage Report

Opposites attract: the year of two harvests

Click here to view our selection of Bordeaux 2023 available for en primeur puchase.

The Bordeaux machine was unusually quiet in the run up to the 2023 en primeur tastings. As we packed our bags and read the weather reports, we might have been forgiven for having a sense of foreboding but as we drove around the region, visiting châteaux, talking and tasting with producers, our smiles grew as we discovered fresh, pure, intense wines with bright fruit and energetic acidity, ripe but with very little heaviness and sensible alcohols between 13% and 14%, leaving us with fresh palates. As Tracey Dobbin MW told us while we tasted a particularly mouthwatering Ducru Beaucaillou, it is an elegant vintage with flesh rather than fat, and we noted that tasters were smacking their lips in appreciation of the fine textures rather than chewing on tannins or wincing on acidity. In other words, in most of our tastings we experienced a shift from the heavy, over extracted wines of recent decades back to the classic style of fresh, well fruited, Bordeaux which we love to drink.

The Growing Season

The season started off well with a cold winter and even snow at Haut-Bailly in Pessac-Léognan, and those who struggled in the drought of 2022 were glad to see the water table replenished. A warm Spring brought an early budbreak with a successful, regular flowering in mid-May, boding well for a generous crop. The weather remained warm but cloudy, with humidity bringing very high disease pressure for the châteaux – this is where it comes down to the availability of resources in the form of manpower and treatments; all of the top properties, those who release en primeur, were in agreement that whilst mildew was a particular issue, most had it under control throughout the season.

Véraison (when the grapes change colour) took place at the end of July and finally the sun came out in mid-August bringing two mini heatwaves on the 17^th - 23^rd August and 3^rd -11^th September, which served to concentrate the large berries and bring the fruit flavours into focus. Those who had managed their canopies well avoided sunburnt grapes and the Merlot harvest started in glorious conditions in early September. For many, harvest paused briefly whilst localised outbreaks of rain fell in the third week of the month, serving to unblock those Cabernets which had closed down during the heatwaves, allowing them to continue to full maturity after a long growing season. The last Cabernets and Petit Verdot grapes were brought in during the first week in October. The hard work in the vineyards had paid off and most of the châteaux that we visited reported healthy yields.

Vinification

Careful selection of the grapes was important in 2023 with Haut-Bailly and Les Carmes Haut-Brion describing four stages of selection: in the vineyard, on arrival at the winery, through the use of density baths and finally with optical sorting to ensure that only the finest fruit went into the vats. Wineries in Bordeaux range from traditional to something akin to space-age allowing winemakers to use modern techniques to turn this good quality fruit into fresh and vibrant wines. By and large, extraction was gentle – the word ‘infusion’ was heard a lot – and because the Merlots were harvested before the Cabernets, many had the luxury of time to work gently with the wines, reducing fermentation temperatures to achieve lifted aromatics and a purity of fruit. Emeline Borie at Private Cellar favourite Grand Puy Lacoste loves their 2023, saying it really has the DNA of the property which produced warm, fat Merlots and classic, strict Cabernets – when they tasted them separately they were poles apart and she worried that they might not work together but as soon as they did the blend, she noted that opposites really do attract and the two expressions came together in a gorgeous GPL with blue and black berry fruit and classic cedar notes, giving the wine its trademark Pauillac identity and earning a ‘double yum’ in our tasting notes.

The Quality Question

From the wines we tasted, this is neither a strictly Cabernet or Merlot year, a Right Bank or Left bank year, but a year in which great attention to detail, particularly in the vineyards but also in the cellars, paid off. We often remarked on the fabulous colours of the 2023s – they are vivid purple and lustrous – and with fresh bright fruit, lifted aromatics and vibrancy. They are ripe but very rarely heavy, with supple tannins and reined in new oak, giving them a lovely tension and sapidity on the finish and reminding us of Bordeaux of old. As always, some wines are over worked, over oaked and over extracted and we will not be offering those. Instead we will offer the wines that we really believe in; 2023 is a good vintage, a classic rather than a solar year and perhaps without the power to make it one of the all-time greats, but it is a vintage that you will love to drink and we firmly believe it will put a smile on your face when you do so.

The Market

It is clear that none of us have an appetite for another expensive en primeur campaign. Whilst Bordeaux is tired of the UK market asking for price decreases, the global market is now adding its voice to underline that there is no capacity in our cellars or bank balances for over-priced wines, so we wait to see how the châteaux will play this vintage. We know the quality is good, and, if they get their prices right, they can look forward to a lot of Bordeaux drinkers getting behind their wines again and enjoying them in the coming years. The campaign will be swift, with many releases scheduled for the coming days, so please let us know if you have any questions or wish lists and we will be sure to keep you updated as the wines come out. If you are new to buying en primeur and would like advice and assistance in pulling together a wish list for the campaign, please do get in touch.

Spring 2023

Download our Vintage Report as a PDF here

Private Cellar Ltd

www.privatecellar.co.uk

T: 01353 721 999 or 01993 670 920